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For people looking for sustained career guidance, Spencer Ingram sees only two current options: research career blogs and forums, or hire a coach. But each is riddled with problems. The former is free, but unstructured and not necessarily reliable. And the latter can be effective, but it’s expensive, and usually not worth the cost.
But Ingram envisions a third option: The Bureau, an online source for customized professional counsel. Targeting college graduates and people looking to change careers, the Bureau uses instructional guides and consultations in an effort to train individuals to develop the professional skills they need to land a job in the field of their choice.
“We feel that a lot of free career content online is clickbait garbage – 5 things to…, Does your boss…,” Ingram said. “We focus on simple, concise steps to help subscribers take action. Most often, people think too far ahead and become overwhelmed with the distance between now and an often uncertain goal.”
The Bureau is currently free to users, who complete a nine-part preliminary questionnaire designed to gauge their professional interests, personal interests, and experience level. They then receive weekly newsletters, which Ingram said contain brief videos “with actionable tips for career hunting.” For more granular guidance, users can submit questions to instructors, whom Ingram described as “experienced professionals with a knack for mentoring and community building.”
Subscribers are also given the option to have a 15-minute call with an instructor, which Ingram asserted is key to developing intangible assets, like building trust and company goodwill.
“Sometimes people just need a sounding board outside of friends and family. These calls show customers there are real experts on their side and, every day, we get to listen to what customers need. This is not very scalable, but we are not scaling. We focus instead [on] how to build exceptional experiences with the right tools and communication,” he said.
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Ingram said the two-person startup is in the process of developing curriculum for small-group courses.
“Our online, small-group courses...blend self-guided exercises with instructor guidance. These courses will be our first service for purchase and an attempt at an affordable, yet personal career guide. The outcome is about building confidence and learn to manage uncertainty,” he explained.
He anticipates the courses will become the crux of the operation, defining it as a full professional-training service that equips career-change aspirants to plant their feet in a new field. “A good analogy [for the courses] may be in the fitness world and getting into shape or training for a sport,” he said. “The Bureau is not a job board for you to apply to companies. That’s like building another gym. Instead, we are the bootcamp with trainers that help you become first draft at the sport of awesome jobs. Like fitness, we will help develop specific areas of weakness.”
Combining personalized counsel and career training, Ingram hopes The Bureau will become a support system for people charting unsteady territory in their transition to a new career.
“How we work is changing. How we find jobs and how often we change, where we work, the skills needed, are all changing along with an advancing frontier of technology,” he said. “What will not change is that people will continue to seek jobs they love. I imagine a future with indefinite access to a personalized career guide. We spend most of our lives at work. I want to help make it count.”
